NOTE: this file may contain comments or information that is considered SPOILERS, if you do not wish to learn this information pleace leave now. My third victory and the first in 1.0.0, this was the result of an experiment to see for myself how "good" mindcrafters can or cannot be -- at least the way I play them. ;) Thanks to my strict early game scheme (Terinyo, L-town, SMC, Kranach), an unspecified number of proto-Jennas died before this one went all the way. Her first kill was a bandit, though I didn't really expect to try for an ultra-ending; even if I don't, I like to get the TotRR just for fun. When I saw a pair of 7LB in the Black Market, my heart nearly gave out and I suspected that I'd die to a stone block trap on my first move in the SMC. Luckily, that didn't happen, but it was still touch, since I explored the whole place before finally finding the stairs. By that time, I was at lvl 5 and just made it out without hitting lvl 6. I had the blanket, but no shield, which had me a little worried. Kranach didn't deign to show up until day 11, and his band didn't even have the decency to drop a bow for Jenna. Rescuing Yrrigs was rather easy (I'd found a shield by then), though a horde of blinkies on the last level was a bit of a nuisance. Then I did it *again*. "It" being not paying attention for the split second it takes to bump into a cat. ARGH! Mentally kicking myself, I hauled Jenna over to the Puppy Cave to retrieve the mutt's body (after learning Detect Traps in L-town). Ironically enough, there was a bookstore on the second level. The gray altar on the fourth level proved to be far more interesting, but before braving the depths, I had to trot back to the surface to sell my loot and kill Hotzenplotz while I was at it. The amulet of order from the sheriff, combined with the alignment boosts from the various quests, was enough to bump me to LN. Not having played a Lawful character before, I wanted to give it a spin this time, so I converted the altar on PC4 and, after clearing out the orc vault on PC6 and grabbing the puppy's corpse, started luring unfortunate critters up from PC5. Before long, I was extremely close to my new deity, so I prayed for a precrowning and got Protector for my effort. At first I wasn't impressed, since I'd had my mind set on a nice weapon. Little did I suspect that this shield would save my hide quite a few times later on. Back on the surface, I had just enough money to buy the 7LB for a little over 5000 gold. Needless to say, I blessed them immediately and felt much more confident about braving the SMC again for the dive to the High Mountain Village. Jenna was at lvl 12 at this point, and so far had relied almost exclusively on the basic Confusion Blast since I wasn't too impressed with Mind Blast. CB on the other hand ... yow. Pure murder on most critters, but those it *can't* hit had the potential to be a real pain in Jenna's ass. This pretty much sums up my experience with her in general. Mind Wave came in handy against masses of weak critters that I didn't have the patience to melee. Anyway, I dodged and CB'ed my way through the SMC without running into something truly nasty. For once, the UD lived up to its name: no herbs, no shops, no vaults, no nothing. Bah. The most interesting challenge came on the very first level, where a black wizard summoned a bunch of ratling duellists. Or rather, it would have been a challenge without CB. :) To my astonishment, there was a *friendly* stone giant lord in the HMV. Now that was a first. Not that I'm complaining! I left through the secret exit and visited the old barbarian's glade, then headed for the CoC. A scroll shop on D2, a gnoll vault on D7, a white altar on D8 ... nice setup to finally get crowned. Dwarftown was generated on D10, and the dwarven elder asked me to kill a large bat. Somehow I don't think he had a very high opinion of Jenna. ;) One such critter was soon found and disposed of, then I proceeded to sacrifice most of the inhabitants of the gnoll vault. Onn rewarded me with cold immunity (well ...) and the robes of resistance (yay!). Garbed in her shiny new crowning gift, Jenna decided to descend via the Dwarven Halls. DH1, no problem. On DH2, a blue dragon wanted a piece of me. CB, whackwhackwhack, dead dragon. By now, I was feeling quite smug. However, that changed in a flash when a ghost lord popped out of a wall right next to me. Time to scram! And as if to drive the point home that a lvl 14 mindcrafter isn't the queen of the world, there was *another* ghost lord on DH1. So I ended up taking the other way down. I like forests. Really. Who wants to slink through smelly old Dwarven Halls anyway? On D14, I ran right into a mixed vault. Most of it was a cakewalk, until a steel zombie shuffled out. Gritting her teeth, Jenna slashed away at it and managed to destroy it, but was badly wounded in turn; Mental Shield didn't turn out to be much help. When a second steel zombie showed itself, it was once again time to run, low on health and out of power as I was. In another corner of the level, she advanced to lvl 15, thus learning Telekinetic Blast. Finally, a power to deal with the unpleasant critters that CB and MB won't touch! I dusted the steel zombie and cleaned out the rest of the vault. D15 yielded some herbs, a crown of fire and a girdle of carrying. Not bad. Khelavaster was holed up on the next level, but I couldn't do anything for him yet except kill the lesser chaos servants surrounding him. A dwarven chaos knight on the same level could be "persuaded" to donate a pickaxe and fireproof blanket (the first in this game) to my cause. Then it was time to return to Dwarftown. I cleared the Ogre Cave, bought a helm of water breathing from the shop, and tried my skills in the Arena. No cats, no sweat. Li-Han-Kay was dethroned easily, and the impressed elder rewarded me with a lovely PoGA. After ridding Dwarftown of the demon, I returned to the surface to tackle the Pyramid, which wasn't too bad although the master mimic on the top level made me a bit nervous (no invisibility, no paralyzation resistance). Next, the Dwarven Graveyard, where I hit my second jackpot (the first being the 7LBs in the Black Market) in the form of a phase dagger and two daggers of death. I enhanced the former and my 7LBs with some scrolls and went to retrieve the wand of TP from the Dusty Cave, where I also advanced to lvl 18. Eyes of the Mind came in handy a few times, even though it doesn't detect Jenna's greatest nemeses, undead and constructs. Onwards to the High Kings' dungeon ... and a third jackpot. An ordinary ring? Could it be? Please? It *was* a ring of djinni summoning! AoLS, come to momma! :) Elated, I proceeded to perforate the skeletal king with some arrows of undead slaying, grabbed the RotHC, and hurried back to Khelavaster. Thanks to the wand of TP, I braved the Dwarven Halls again, where I gained my first corruption: astral plane attunement. Nice. I also met an ancient minotaur there, my first ever, since I don't do the Maze. CB let me deal with him just fine. I fought my way through a bee hive and dark elf vault on D17, the Graveyard on D18, and the Water Temple on D20. The latter offered a nice challenge for my CB-spoiled mindcrafter. Moon Sickle was generated on D21, and the banshee level on D23. Okay, time to plug my ears. Argh! Where's my wax?! I hastily scrambled back to wherever I'd dropped my latest bunch of stuff, muttering unkind words at myself all the time. Once the banshee was history I soon reached the wall of flames, where I was faced with the unpleasant fact that I only had two fireproof blankets and didn't really feel ready to storm the ToEF anyway. Hmm. Procrastinating time. Trying not to think about the Tower, Jenna paid a visit to Blup's mom and Darkforge. There were no artifacts to be found there, but at least she gained two much-needed levels and picked up a third fireproof blanket somewhere on the way (as well as her second corruption). Now at lvl 23, she still didn't relish the idea of doing the Tower ... but a heroine's gotta do what she's gotta do. And believe me, now I was most glad indeed to have Protector. TF1 offered a surprise in the form of a huge room full of constantly multiplying red worms, which I gave up on and simply dug to the stairs instead. However, I'd take a dungeon full of worms over the tension room I bumped into on TF2. Fire elementals! I gave it a try, knowing that if I'd get my ass kicked here, I shouldn't even think of tackling the topmost level. To make short story even shorter, I did get my ass kicked -- one critical hit knocked off what must've been almost 100 hp and brought me down to maybe 20. I simply wasn't recovering power fast enough to consistently weaken the elementals with TB so I could quickly kill them in melee with the Sword of Nonnak. So I ran. And, true to the spirit of this rollercoaster of a game, humiliation and jackpot went hand in hand again: on the way out, I killed a red dragon who dropped, of all things, a ring of ice. :) Without this turn of luck, I guess I'd have stormed the Gremlin Cave with Big Punch, trying to get a halfway decent skill in maces, but now I rushed to the barbarian's glade where I'd dropped my valuable equipment, and geared up properly with a dagger of death and a trusty bow plus slaying ammo. Those elementals were still tough ... and the Temple was worse, of course. I dug my way in and tried to fight through the hordes of elementals rushing me. Another brutal hit and I was down to a grand total of 6 hp. A PoUH restored my health if not my confidence, so I decided to try something else. I created a door at the western end of my newly-dug corridor, locked it, dug another way in, and managed to seal off the eastern end of the first corridor as well, trapping around ten elementals inside. There were still plenty left over, though ... and the ACW followed on their heels. I slowly retreated to the stairs to recover. After healing myself, I discovered that the ACW had outpaced most of the elementals. The following fight was vicious, but thanks to a bunch of slaying arrows, a PoEH and as many TBs as I could muster, the beast finally fell. Much relieved, I grabbed the Orb and high-tailed it outta there to deliver the corpse to Guth'Alak. On the way down into the CoC, I decided to do the post-championship Arena battles. Before long, I was staring at a hard-hitting diamond golem, who fell to a barrage of TBs. Next came a greater air elemental, which I similarly defeated on my last power points. Whew. The second next fight was the final one and quite unspectacular in comparison. DH2 continued to throw nasties my way (I'd met a gorgon and swamp hydra there on various trips) -- a moloch. An altogether different surprise was the lich on D18 who dropped a wand of wishing with 2 charges. I saved it for later. Finally, I reached the Casino on D30 and decided to try my hands at gambling for the first time; the profits went into training my St, Le and Wi. D35 presented me with a frost giant vault (piece of cake even without CB), and the Cat Lord had his lair on the following level. Since I hadn't gone out of my way to avoid killing more cats after the first accident, he was a tough nut to crack, but eventually fell to CB and slaying arrows. On D39, Jenna found a much hoped-for dragon vault, a red dragon vault to be precise. Since her first girdle of carrying had been vaporized somewhere, I was most glad to find a replacement here, along with a lovely ring of invisibility. During these fights, Jenna finally advanced to lvl 30 and learned Greater Telekinetic Blast. Whoa boy, that power was awesome. Having used it a bit too liberally, I had to retreat and recover power when the resident wyrm charged me. Once recharged, though, I happily GTB'ed the living daylights out of him. Next on the agenda: the Air Temple, which was pretty much a cakewalk, although the fire grues and giant rust monsters were tougher than anything Yulash had ever thrown at me before (two words: goblin rockthrowers). However, the Earth Temple on D43 was another matter. Much to my disgust, earth elementals aren't impressed with GTB at all -- meleeing them brought back painful memories of the ToEF, and after gaining two hard-won levels down there, I decided to take a break. Time to head up and out again to sell some junk, finally learn Courage from the old barbarian, raid the Assassins' Guild for Sting and introduce Kherab to my new best friend, the GTB. Then I assaulted the Earth Temple for the second time and again levelled up twice in there before retreating to recover. By now, Jenna was at lvl 36. On D44, the messenger from Blup's mom deliver the rune-covered trident, which I used for a while. A few more levels down, I accidentally bumped into an ancient karmic dragon and lost the Lucky and Fate Smiles intrinsics in one fell swoop. Bah! So, after GBT'ing the dragon, I headed back up to the nearest altar and re-gained them by sacrificing a bunch of hapless monsters. Then I decided that it was about bloody time to finish clearing out the bloody Earth Temple, and proceeded to do so, though I still got beaten down hard a few times. The Ancient Stone Beast ate a ton of slaying arrows (saved for just this battle) before it keeled over, rewarding me with two level-ups (to lvl 39) as well as the Orb. Whew! Glad to have that over with, Jenna descended into the UL to tackle the Blue Dragon Caves, probably my favourite area in the game. On DL1, she killed a quickling queen and devoured the corpse. On DL2, she disposed of a ghost king, greater titan and diamond golem in quick succession. By the time she hit the bottom level, she was at lvl 44. After reading a scroll of magic mapping and using her Eyes of the Mind power to discern the big purple W's location, she CB'ed and hacked her way through his "children" (including some lesser wyrms) to slug it out with him in person. It was a fun fight, what with his mad regeneration speed, but in the end, he succumbed to the tried-and-true combination of GTB and slaying arrows. Jenna gained FOUR levels from this fight, bumping her to lvl 48! As she was gleefully rushing back upstairs, another ghost king popped out of a wall and smacked her over the head. Middle-aged? Argh. I didn't have any potions of youth, so after collecting Sharad-Waador's reward, another trip to the Casino was in order. Luckily, it had some in store. On the way up, Jenna dusted a greater moloch and advanced to lvl 50 -- her newly-learned Greater Mental Wave proved to be another fun toy. I decided to sell another boatload of junk while I was at it, and invested all of my money into training Wi in Dwarftown. Poor Garth nearly had a heart attack. In the end, though, it didn't net me more than 2-3 points. Once back down in the BDC, I killed the remaining wyrms and generally had great fun slicing dragons into ribbons with the Twin daggers. Then, the Mana Temple. The moment I descended to UL6, a mimic hivemind jumped me. Yikes! If it hadn't missed me on the first attack, that would have been an BAD case of YASD right there. After immediately putting some distance between Jenna and this fearsome foe with the lovely Teleport Self power, I quickly CB'ed and GTB'ed it to death. Compared to that shock, the greater moloch on the same level was a pussycat. The Mana Temple itself was an utter cakewalk. Three words: Greater Mental Wave. I figured that, chaos beasts or not, I'd get considerably less corruption this way -- speed is of the essence down there, after all. So I donned every piece of willpower-boosting equipment I had and let off a huge GMW every few steps while making my way through the trap-filled corridor. I've rarely felt so smug during a game of ADoM, especially since I've had a really healthy respect for the dangers of the MT ever since losing my first character who ever made it this far to Nuurag-Varn. But this time, the shoe was well and truly on the other foot ... *cackles madly* Unsurprisingly, most monsters were either dead or panicked by the time I reached the inner sanctum. The remaining wizards fell to a single GTB each; to his credit, Nuurag himself withstood four GBTs before succumbing to the fifth. He never got the chance to try anything unpleasant. With all the Orbs in her possession, Jenna prepared for the grande finale. She entered D50 with seven generally harmless corruptions, all the scrolls and crystals of power that she'd been able to find during her travels, and a bunch of wands which saw liberal use down there, though they didn't have that much of an impact. The metaplane was *tough*! Always short on power, she kept getting hit (and thus corrupted) even when I switched from the twins to one of my old daggers of death and Protector. I guess it was fitting that this final victory would be hard-won, especially after the picnic in the Mana Temple. This game was truly a series of ups and downs the likes of which I haven't experienced with my other successful characters. But Jenna persevered, full-cleared D50 with a lot of sweat, blood and swearing, closed the Gate, and returned to the surface in triumph. I chatted with the greater white unicorn, did her quest and then decided to try the Bug Temple, a first for me. It was easier than I had expected -- killer bugs usually fell to one berserk attack with the Twins, though they did lay into me hard when that first blow didn't kill them. Still, Jenna was never in real danger of dying. Once the bugs were history, she returned to Yrruir to be cleansed of corruption, then left the Drakalor Chain and went into well-earned retirement. Her final stats, unboosted except for To: * Jenna St:37 Le:31 Wi:51 Dx:34 To:38 Ch:18 Ap:27 Ma:30 Pe:21 L+ * DV/PV: 55/34 H: 776(776) P: 853(853) Exp: 50/71864382 DrCh Sp: 113 * Blessed Strained Her gear: * Head : blessed helm of teleportation (-1, +1) [+2, +3] [50s] * Neck : blessed rusty necklace of the eye [3s] I like to spot enemies ASAP. * Body : blessed robes of resistance (-4, -4) [+3, +12] {To+5} [60s] * Girdle : blessed girdle of carrying [+4, +3] [15s] * Cloak : normal light cloak [+3, +0] [20s] * Right Hand : normal black rune-covered dagger "Sting" (+8, 3d4) [+4, +1] * Left Hand : normal black rune-covered dagger "Needle" (+8, 3d4) [+4, +1] Gotta love 'em. * Right Ring : normal ring of slaying (+9 melee damage, +6 missile damage) The best I've ever seen. Pickpocketed it on D44, if memory serves. * Left Ring : normal ring of slaying (+7 melee damage, +6 missile damage) * Bracers : normal bracers of speed [+3, +0] (+4 spd) [10s] * Gauntlets : normal gloves of smiting (+1, +1) [+2, +0] (+5 damage) [6s] Also the best I've ever seen. Most are +2, tops. * Boots : blessed seven league boots [+5, +3] [30s] * Missile weapon: normal short bow (+1, +3) [20s] * Missiles : bundle of 8 blessed winged arrows of slaying (+0, 1d6)[16s] * Tool : normal stethoscope [5s] I'm always curious about the mosters' stats. Other stuff: * normal red dragon scale mail (-1, -4) [-1, +13] [220s] * heap of 2 normal blue dragon scale mails (-1, -4) [-1, +10] [400s] * normal white dragon scale mail (-2, -4) [+0, +11] [200s] No full set, bah. Never found a black one. * blessed seven league boots [+1, +0] [30s] * normal seven league boots [+1, +0] [30s] * normal seven league boots [+3, +2] [30s] I wish I could donate those spares to some of my other characters. ;) * normal rustproof dagger of death (+4, 5d5+2) [10s] * normal rustproof phase dagger (+3, 1d4+2) [5s] * normal dagger of death (+1, 5d5+2) [10s] All from the Dwarven Graveyard. I used them, dual-wielded or with Protector, until I got the Twins. * normal sword of Nonnak (+2, 4d3+2) [+2, +2] {Wi+5} [80s] Wielded when I needed the willpower boost. * blessed dwarven rune axe "Rolf's Companion" (+3, 3d6+6) [+4, +4] {To+3} First time ever, since this was my first Lawful character. I'd rather have the SoCR, of course. * normal mace of destruction (+4, 5d6+6) [120s] * normal mace of destruction (+4, 5d6+9) [120s] From Darkforge. One of these days I'll have to play a mace-wielder. * normal eternium long sword of devastation (+0, 6d8+13) [20s] Holy cow! Don't remember where I got this -- probably D50. * blessed ring of ice [1s] I could kiss the dragon who dropped this in the ToEF. Talk about timing! * normal ring of minor elemental mastery [1s] Don't remember seeing one of those before. * normal wand of monster creation (1 charge) [3s] * blessed potion of cure corruption [2s] * heap of 2 normal scrolls of danger [4s] Yes, I could have tried an ultra ending if I hadn't been so impatient to get crowned. Maybe a Jenna II will eventually give it a spin ... I've come to like mindcrafters. * normal wand of wishing (2 charges) [3s] I can't believe I never used this! Then again, I had everything I needed by the time I found this beauty. * heap of 9 blessed scrolls of chaos resistance [18s] You can never have too many! * 15661 gold pieces [156s] Jenna's poor for a game-winner. ;) Much of her money was used to train stats and shop in the Casino. Clipped: tons of slaying ammo, a collection of lovely gems, and a wagonload of books that I didn't even try to read, but wanted to keep anyway. * Daggers & knives 13 +16 +10 +4 Mastery 4506 Main weapons in the mid- and late game. * Swords 11 +10 +7 +4 Mastery 2706 * Pole arms 8 +8 +4 +8 excellent 292 Used on and off in the early and midgame, plus some use of the rune-covered trident later on. * Bows 10 +20 +15 +3 excellent 840 * Crossbows 6 +12 +9 +2 skilled 90 Missile weapons are your friend. * Shields 12 +24 Mastery 3198 Thanks, Protector! * Damage caused with your melee weapons: * -------------------------------------- * Right hand: +129 bonus to hit, 3d4+85 damage * Left hand: +128 bonus to hit, 3d4+85 damage What can I say, it's the Twins. :) Most skills at 100, except for ... * Climbing ................. 65 (good) [+1] Didn't feel like tackling the Rift and Library -- or spending the time and money needed to push this to 100. * Bless : 5, 15pp (Effectivity: +0) * Burning Hands : 19, 14pp (Effectivity: +0) * Calm Monster : 7, 15pp (Effectivity: +0) * Darkness : 10, 7pp (Effectivity: +0) * Know Alignment: 17, 18pp (Effectivity: +0) * Light : 8, 5pp (Effectivity: +0) * Magic Missile : 2, 15pp (Effectivity: +0) Potions of wonder, of course. * After she leaves the Drakalor Chain she is welcomed by her people with great * honors. They acknowledge her noble deeds, her valor, her cunning and her * great skills that helped to prevent the complete destruction of the world * she knows. She is crowned to be the queen of all humans and lives a long and * prosperous life full of love, happiness and pleasure. Happy happy, joy joy! (Though I could do without the royalty bit.) * Jenna, the human mindcrafter, saved the world with her brave efforts and * became a great ruler while saving herself 13 times. * She scored 27144264 points and advanced to level 50. * She survived for 0 years, 72 days, 8 hours, 14 minutes and 21 seconds * (114698 turns). I'm too jittery to play for more than three hours or so at a time, except in the late game, where I tend to go on a roll. * Her strength score was modified by +24 during her career. * Her learning score was modified by +16 during her career. * Her willpower score was modified by +27 during her career. * Her dexterity score was modified by +18 during her career. * Her toughness score was modified by +15 during her career. * Her charisma score was modified by +10 during her career. * Her appearance score was modified by +15 during her career. * Her mana score was modified by +16 during her career. * Her perception score was modified by +9 during her career. For a total of +150. * She was the champion of the arena. * She was the head of the thieves guild. * She made a little water dragon very happy. * She defeated the arch enemy of a mighty karmic wyrm. * She stopped the generation of nasty bugs. A first. * She saved Khelavaster from certain death. * She left the Drakalor Chain after completing her quest and became a great * leader and famous heroine. * 7348 monsters perished before her. * The following 23 artifacts were generated during her adventure: That's not a whole lot on both counts, since I didn't do the Rift, Library, Gremlin Cave, Quickling Tree, or the TotRR quests. * the glaive "Long Sting" * the ring of immunity I don't remember where I found these, they were the only artifacts that aren't at least semi-guaranteed. * the robes of resistance Crowning gift. Lovely! * the medium obsidian shield "Protector" Initially underappreciated precrowning gift, but a lifesaver later on. * She was a messiah of Onn. * She asked for 1 divine intervention. * She was a holy champion of Order. I think this is the first time I only prayed for a precrowning and never for anything else. Despite her difficulties, Jenna was a tough gal. Some juicy kills: * 1 Ancient Stone Beast * 1 Ancient Chaos Wyrm * 1 Chaos Archmage * 1 Master Summoner * 1 Snake from Beyond The alphabetical order was almost the order of difficulty, except that Yulash was easier than the Snake. For once, Nuurag was a toothless puppy thanks to GMW and GTB, but I still have a healthy respect for him. * 35 bandits First kill. Only two more than were required to get Courage. * 261 jackals Most numerous kill, followed by 260 rats, 252 wolves and 218 red worms (due to that huge spawning pit in the ToEF). * 4 ancient black dragons * 51 ancient blue dragons * 1 ancient karmic dragon * 11 ancient red dragons * 4 black baby dragons * 52 blue baby dragons * 2 karmic baby dragons * 28 red baby dragons * 16 white baby dragons * 1 black dragon * 54 blue dragons * 3 karmic dragons * 11 red dragons * 1 white dragon * 1 great black wyrm * 6 great blue wyrms * 1 great red wyrm I like having complete "sets" of all dragon types, but wyrms are rare, and only one dragon vault was generated. No greater vaults at all. * 3 ancient minotaurs Never met any before. Unspectacular. * 1 cat lord * 8 cave lions * 8 cave tigers * 6 wild cats Sigh. I love cats, and I love that ring, too. * 3 diamond golems More than I'd seen before in all the gamed I'd played until then. * 154 killer bugs Fodder for a lvl 50 character, even in melee. * 1 living wall * 1 wall beast I hate these things. * 2 mimic hiveminds And these.